Clare

how and where to raise their children. While visiting Clare at her home, Irene learned of Clare’s troubled relationship and her hardship of being married to an extremely racist man who greeted her with racial slurs, and Clare’s powerlessness in standing up to him. This proved to Irene that while her life was not perfect she at least could be completely honest about herself to the people around her, thus quelling her queer desire. Irene needed Clare in her life to reaffirm her decision to remain…

women’s voices and experiences, in the historiography of the early Franciscan movement. To accomplish this goal, she focuses on the history of the Franciscan Rule of St. Clare which was finally approved in 1253, only two days before she died. The encompassing theme of the book is the insistence on the “Privilege of Poverty” by Clare of Assisi and the women of St. Francis that was finally granted to them one day before with Clare's death…

In the name of the protagonist are prefigured tensions and polarities that span the life of the character and also their society of origin. On one side is Clare, clear, and the other is Savage, wild, a term associated with darkness. She is the daughter of a "more white" father, descended from English planters, and a "rather dark" mother. This original tension between a father who seems to be able to "pass" for white and a mother who feels closer in their acceptance of black heritage, will be…

Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who are racial passing. Racial passing in the context of this book means that a person of one race can deceive others into thinking that they are of another race. This action allows for characters to adopt certain roles or identities; in which they can then be socially accepted by the rest of society. The novel deals with bi-racial characters that live life’s with lies and deception about who they are, specifically Irene and Clare. Irene and Clare struggle with…

greatest charitable force in her town. However, in Passing, the loss of the sense of identity lead to negative consequences. Clare initially chose to rid herself of her old identity as an african american for a better social standing. However, she tried to reclaim her old sense of identity, associated with Irene, her family, and her friends in Harlem. While this initially lead to Clare rediscovering parts of her old sense of identity, and building it back in Harlem, her selfish personality in…

In Passing, Nella Larsen explores the options the African American women had and the choices they made in 1920s. The novel’s plot delves into the relationship between Irene Redfield, the protagonist, and Clare Kendry, who is, arguably, the novel’s antagonist. Even though race is a major theme in the novel, but a closer reading would conclude that pursing security in marriage and society is what drives every main character in the book. Irene Redfield, a complex biracial character, is…

and black communities. In Passing the two characters Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry are two black women passing to be white. Throughout the story there have been feuds between Irene and Clare. In the article “The Veils of the Law: Race and Sexuality” the author argues that Passing subtly delineates the interracial sexual attraction of Irene Redfield for Clare. I agree with the fact that Irene is sexually attracted to Clare; however it could also be jealousy. The author has some really great…

go to a tea party at Clare’s home where she meets Gertrude, but more importantly she meets Jack Bellew, Clare’s husband. In this scene Irene is exposed to the tranny of Jack Bellew and how race ethics has forced Clare into becoming a white woman. Clare’s husband Jack Bellew who calls Clare “nig” on the basis that “when [they] got first married, she was as white as...a lily. But I declare she gettin’ darker and darker. I tell her if she don’t look out, she 'll wake up one of these days and find…

Similarly to its coloration, the lip’s formation of a smile also emphasizes sexual freedom of a woman. While women can unveil their sexual interests through their lip shades, they can alternatively do so through their smiles. As the novel progresses, Clare not only utilizes her smile as a platform to present her sexuality, but as a way to actively lure men with her charms. For this reason, she resists the status of the sexually oppressed female by donning her sexuality on her smile. In Chicago,…

this fact hasn’t change. While Clare’s husband found that Clare is not white, she understood that she won’t be able to survive anymore in such racist society, so she pushed herself through the window and ended her life. According to Larsen “Clare stood at the window…she seemed unaware of any danger or uncaring. There was even a faint smile on her full, red lips, and in her shining eyes” (238-239). This paragraph represents that when Clare knew that the secret is revealed now, there is nothing…